a life of glorious wonder here and yet, at the same time, a life in which the best is yet to be. ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.’ ALL great men and women have had their favourite texts, but this has been called ‘everybody’s text’. Herein for every one of us is the very essence of the gospel. This text tells us certain great things. (1) It tells us that the initiative in